We’re all aware of the slow decline and sudden rebirth of Tomb Raider, but here it is again, in a nutshell. Excellent first game spins wildly into quickly released sequels, and a world of boobalicious merchandise. Lara Croft gets her own press office, while the quality of the games degrade into unfinished, repetitive crap. Lara jumped, then flipped mid-air and shot a number of sharks with Angel of Darkness. Then, she was unexpectedly resuscitated on the other side of a number of sharks when Crystal Dynamics took over the development, and produced the gridless, physics-powered Legend. And now, Core Design - the team that made all the games up to Angel of Darkness - has to suffer the indignity of Crystal Dynamics making their first baby better.

So, what criticisms has the game faced? “Not enough tombs” is a good start. “Too much shooting animals” was one cry, until animals were replaced with gangsters, at which point “it wasn’t Tomb Raider enough.” In remaking the original game - the very definition of Tomb Raider, surely - the decision has been made to keep it as pure to that ill-defined Tomb Raider-ness as possible. It’s a level-for-level remake, so that means tomb after tomb mixed with raiding galore. The only skyscraper is in a cutscene, and there’s certainly no Tokyo level, which the more cynical players of Legend would describe as a wank break.

Let’s talk about the original Tomb Raider, then. Players of Legend might be surprised by the lack of globetrotting. The original game took Lara through three large tombs, working for and then against the shadowy Natla Corp. Tombs had a Peruvian, Greek and Egyptian theme, each split into a number of levels. These levels generally took the form of a hub room which requires three cogs, four keys and three gold bars, basically x of y, which could be found in puzzle rooms branching off from the hub. It was simple but effective, and felt more engaging than the more linear levels of late. Then, it was off to Atlantis, where it was revelations galore and the end of the game.

Anniversary feels like the real game, not this weird imposter from 1996, that could have been made a decade ago. It’s like playing the game again, like you want to remember it. It runs at great speeds, although at some points ambition outstrips technology. Standing at one end of the Coliseum, for example, and forcing your PC to draw the whole thing while you spin your mouse around with your mouth wide open, well - that’ll cause some slowdown.